- MmmMiami. 70 degrees and bikey.
You know how I’m always yammering about how Portland will fall behind other cities in bike-friendliness if we don’t pony up significantly more money for bike infrastructure projects?
Good magazine has a cool article about seven North American burgeoning bike cities—basically a run down of the places that are going to snag Portland’s “Best Bike City in America!” crown if we don’t watch our back.
Though Portland leads the nation on bike commuting per capita, Good points out that other cities have their own bikey strengths, like Albuquerque’s nearly 400 miles of bike lanes/trails, Austin’s 80 annual alley cats and the Twin Cities’ awesome-sounding Stupor Bowl.
H/T to axoplasm
Love keeping PDX on top, but – any city where you can bike more than four months out of the year without getting soakingly filthy will kick Portland’s @$$ any day of the week.
Sounds like a certain bike-friendly city in the Pacific Northwest needs to hire seven Jeff Giloolys.
Will you all please move now?
/end grouchiness/
@Commenty Colin : Jeff Gilooly comes to my house all the time, he would probably take them all out, if the money was right.
I don’t see why Portland needs to “remain #1”. Let’s do what’s right for the city and not worry about what potential transplants read about us in the NYT or whatever.
And Portland sucks for mountain biking. There’s little decent singletrack nearby, which is puzzling. We’ve got plenty of hills and shit, where are the fucking trails?
Dude, mountain biking went out with flannel shirts and Mudhoney. You want to roll in this city you need to get yourself a fixie, some skinny jeans and the complete MGMT discography on your Ipod. Get with the program.
Good call CH, but all those things will be back in style within two years.
I’m from Miami, I spent three months there in 2009, and that article is bullshit.
First, it doesn’t get “just a few weeks of rain”. It gets 130 days of precipitation a year. By comparison, Portland gets 150 days and its rain is but a drizzle compared to Miami’s tropical downpour.
Second, it is most definitely NOT bike friendly. They mention a bike plan that was proposed but like many things proposed in Miami will NOT be implemented. They mention 100 riders, in a city of 5 million people.
Also, Florida has the highest number of pedestrian deaths, with the top five cities including Miami being in Florida. It is a complete nightmare to be a pedestrian in Miami; for those of you that complain about Portland, the *best* pedestrian city in the country, imagine what it’s like in one of the worst.
Up and coming? Doubtful.